"Chipotle has always advised vegetarian and vegan customers to avoid pinto beans on its website. The beans are cooked with "a small amount of bacon," unlike the Mexican chain's black beans, which are vegan. But in-store menus do not indicate the porkiness of the pinto, and Chipotle's burrito assemblers are instructed to inform customers of the bacon inclusion only if they order a burrito without other meat.
"
- Steve

Yeah, I always ask about lard in the beans and butter in the rice when going to Mexican restaurants. I never went to Chipotle before, and I almost never go to any Mexican restaurants for that matter. I've actually had more success finding vegan food in restaurants in Mexico than I've had in Mexican restaurants in the U.S.

A lot of restaurants in Mexico can't afford lard! But they can in the US. Also, health foods/vegetarianism has been on the rise for over a decade in Mexico (there were veg restaurants and health food stores in every city I went to when I was there 10 years ago).

Yeah, I don't get the fuss about this. It's not marked on the menu, but it's not marked as vegetarian either. As someone who formerly ate meat but not pork, I always knew to ask about beans at restaurants.

I'm glad this was exposed, because I had been uninitiated to this open secret about those beans, and I never cared before as I had only recently become a serious vegetarian and then shortly later a vegan. Good to know.